Player Manager Frustration!

[Seany75]

I used to play this game way back, find out I can run it through an emulator. After hours of trial and error I finally get it to work using winuae... or do I? Actually no, I have the problem many before me have had, I cannot get past the 'insert formatted disk' screen when making a new game. Now, before any of you go through telling me all about creating a new winuae disk and putting it in drive 0 etc, don't, I have been through all that in as many different ways I can think of, it's just not working at all. I have tried using the save game d/l from the net and that just gets me a file error.

What I need is for someone here who knows the problem well to explain what i'm doing wrong (or what files I am missing). Here is my email knives4teeth@fsmail.net if someone could email me a save file to try (a blank working one would be great) I'd be very appreciative, I have spent too long trying to get this game to work and am fed up now. Btw I have read through the other threads here regarding the same problem and the advice there yielded no results, I'm at brick wall time, any help will be appreciated.

[gdh82]

I have the problem many before me have had, I cannot get past the 'insert formatted disk' screen when making a new game.

Here is my email knives4teeth@fsmail.net if someone could email me a save file to try (a blank working one would be great) I'd be very appreciative.

Welcome to the forum, Seany. Not being much of a PM man myself, I'm not able to help but there are others around here who might. I'd guess Stainy would know about this tho he doesn't visit so often at the moment but I bet he wouldn't mind a pm from a fellow PM fan! Hope you can crack this one way or another.

[alkis21]

Try this

[Seany75]

Thanks Alkis, but I already tried that file last night... I really don't know what's wrong. I'll have another go now but I'm not hopeful. I have the game playing - as in I have played a demo game and the match plays fine, yet I cannot start my own season, all I get when I create a blank disk for disk 0 and click ok is 'insert formatted disk', or, when I try other 'disk' files, such as yours Alkis, or another save file I downloaded I get 'file error'.

[alkis21]

Have you tried using an older WinUAE version? In some newer versions the 'create formatted disk' function has incompatibility problems with older games.

And I assume you are using kickstart 1.3?

[Seany75]

Try this

'file error'

[Seany75]

Have you tried using an older WinUAE version? In some newer versions the 'create formatted disk' function has incompatibility problems with older games.

And I assume you are using kickstart 1.3?

Yes @ kickstart 1.3 as I said i have the game running, just can't get past the 'insert formatted disk' step.

Can you recommend a good (player manager) version of winuae? I'm using version 1.5.1

[alkis21]

Try one of the pre-1.0 ones.

[Seany75]

I tried installing winuae version 0.9.... diddn't work on my computer, maybe because it's vista? dunno. Thanks for your help alkis. I might try winfellow... other than that i'm about ready to give up, have wasted too much time on this already.

[jesper]

Have you tried using an older WinUAE version? In some newer versions the 'create formatted disk' function has incompatibility problems with older games.

And I assume you are using kickstart 1.3?

Yes @ kickstart 1.3 as I said i have the game running, just can't get past the 'insert formatted disk' step.

Just tried winuae 1.6.1, kick13 and Oracle Cracked PM. Created and empty disk with 'Create Standard Disk' on the 'Floppy Drives' configuration page. At first I had the empty disk in df1 and cpu at fastest possible during team generation. I had the same issue as you at first but it magically worked after many mouse presses and configuration changes. The empty disk has to be in drive df0. Make sure it's not write protected. I slowed the cpu down to a500 speed as well and disable df1. It suddenly worked. Not sure which option did the trick.

Can you recommend a good (player manager) version of winuae? I'm using version 1.5.1

Don't listen to Alkis. Always use latest official version. The author of winuae frequently answers questions here:

http://eab.abime.net/forumdisplay.php?f=5

[Seany75]

I'M IN!! As a last ditch effort I installed winuae 1.6 (the latest I believe) and I also tried a different PM file (found from the website 'The Game Archives') worked first time! Not sure whether it was the game file or the new version of winuae that did it (or both) but not sure that I care either! Just glad I can again play the best football managerial game evah!! I'm having a bit of an Amiga revival here, gonna play Eye of the Beholder, Syndicate, Captive... but first I'm off to do the double in my third season

Btw I love the managerial aspect of this game so much I am not in the slightest bothered about not having a competition pro hooked up to the pc - I used to do whole seasons just as the manager, that's how much I love this game.

Cheers for the help chaps.

[Yoda]

Btw I love the managerial aspect of this game so much I am not in the slightest bothered about not having a competition pro hooked up to the pc - I used to do whole seasons just as the manager, that's how much I love this game

Me too. Haven't had a pc compatible joystick until very recently, been watching, not playing, matches for about 50 seasons. Don't miss the playing matches side of Pm tbh. Maybe that explains why I still suck at KO2

[Seany75]

Yep, the game is a bit too easy if I play I seem to remember, I could dominate playing either in position or as team. I also don't allow myself to use substitutes or change formation at halftime (as I don't think the AI does so I see it as cheating)